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Thursday, April 18, 2013

White House35 ...Medal of Honor

As an Air Force Veteran, it gives me great pride to be Blessed to capture the awarding of a Medal of Honor.View ALL Images HERE

President
Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor April 11,2013 to an Army chaplain
from Kansas who risked his life dodging gunfire to provide medical and
spiritual aid to wounded soldiers before dying in captivity more than 60
years ago during the Korean War. “I can’t imagine a better
example for all of us, whether in uniform or not in uniform, a better
example to follow,” Obama said after presenting the nation’s highest
military award for valor to a nephew of Capt. Emil Kapaun during a
ceremony in the White House East Room.The Roman Catholic priest
was recognized for helping to carry an injured American for miles as
Chinese captors led them on a death march, and for risking his life to
drag the wounded to safety while dodging explosions and gunfire.In
November 1950, after Chinese soldiers overran U.S. troops near Unsan,
Kapaun defied orders to evacuate, knowing it meant he would most
certainly be captured. He pleaded with an injured Chinese officer to
call out to his fellow Chinese to stop shooting, an act that spared the
lives of wounded Americans.As Kapaun was being led away, he came
across another wounded American in a ditch and an enemy soldier standing
over Sgt. Herbert Miller, ready to shoot. Kapaun pushed the enemy aside
and helped Miller as they were taken captive. They arrived days later,
by foot, at the village in Pyoktong, where a POW camp eventually was
established. “This is the valor we honor today — an American
soldier who didn’t fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of
all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that
they might live,” Obama said.At the camp, Kapaun cleaned others’
wounds, convinced them to share scarce food, offered them his own
clothes and provided spiritual aid and comfort. On Easter in 1951, he
defied his communist captors by conducting Mass with a makeshift
crucifix.

He died on May 23, 1951, at age 35, after six months in captivity.The president said Kapaun showed that a touch of the divine exists even in hellish situations.
“Father Kapaun’s life, I think, is a testimony to the human spirit, the
power of faith, and reminds us of the good that we can do each and
every day regardless of the most difficult of circumstances,” Obama
said.The chaplain’s nephew, Ray Kapaun, his face flush with
emotion, accepted the medal from Obama on his uncle’s behalf. Emil
Kapaun’s parents and his only sibling, a brother, are deceased.
“I don’t think the enormity of what occurred today will actually hit me
until my wife and I are heading home from this experience,” Ray Kapaun,
56, said afterward. “A country boy from a small town in Kansas just
received the nation’s highest award for valor. That boy was my uncle.”He
gave credit to fellow POWs who spent years lobbying for the Medal of
Honor for the uncle he came to know only through stories others told.Credit...Washington Post